Related papers: A Super-Alfvenic Model of Dark Clouds
Supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds is a key agent in generating density enhancements that may subsequently go on to form stars. The stronger the turbulence - the higher the Mach number - the more extreme the density fluctuations are…
I present the results of a program to spectrophotometrically monitor the L1.5 dwarf 2MASSW J1145572+231730 to identify the cause of photospheric variability in ultra cool dwarfs. Plausible candidates are magnetically-induced star spots and…
We present the results of a large suite of three-dimensional (3D) models of the collapse of magnetic molecular cloud cores using the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code Enzo2.2 in the ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) approximation. The…
We suggest that molecular cloud (MC) turbulence is a consequence of the very process of MC formation by collisions of larger-scale flows in the diffuse atomic gas, which generate turbulence in the accumulated gas through bending- mode…
The elemental composition of the Sun's hot atmosphere, the corona, shows a distinctive pattern that is different than the underlying surface, or photosphere (Pottasch 1963). Elements that are easy to ionize in the chromosphere are enhanced…
We develop a detailed chemical model for the starless cores of strongly magnetized molecular clouds, with the ambipolar diffusion-driven dynamic evolution of the clouds coupled to the chemistry through ion abundances. We concentrate on two…
Aim: To study turbulence in the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC1) by comparing observed and simulated characteristics of the gas motions. Method: Using a dataset of vibrationally excited H2 emission in OMC1 containing radial velocity and…
We show that an alpha effect is driven by the cosmic ray Bell instability exciting left-right asymmetric turbulence. Alfven waves of a preferred polarization have maximally helical motion, because the transverse motion of each mode is…
Non-standard fields are assumed to be responsible for phenomena attributed to dark energy and dark matter. Being coupled to ordinary matter, these fields modify the masses and/or charges of the elementary particles, thereby violating the…
Filaments play a central role in the molecular clouds' evolution, but their internal dynamical properties remain poorly characterized. To further explore the physical state of these structures, we have investigated the kinematic properties…
We study properties of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) eigenmodes by decomposing the data of MHD simulations into linear MHD modes - namely the Alfven, slow magnetosonic, and fast magnetosonic modes. We drive turbulence with a mixture of…
We revisit the problem of the star formation timescale and the ages of molecular clouds. The apparent overabundance of star-forming molecular clouds over clouds without active star formation has been thought to indicate that molecular…
Using advanced numerical magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of the magnetised solar photosphere, including non-grey radiative transport and a non-ideal equation of state, we analyse plasma motions in photospheric magnetic vortices. We…
We present three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetized gas clouds accelerated by hot winds. We initialize gas clouds with tangled internal magnetic fields and show that this field suppresses the disruption of the cloud:…
We clarify the mechanism of accelerated core formation by large-scale nonlinear flows in subcritical magnetic clouds by finding a semi-analytical formula for the core formation time and describing the physical processes that lead to them.…
For a molecular cloud clump to form stars some transport of magnetic flux is required from the denser, inner regions to the outer regions of the cloud, otherwise this can prevent the collapse. Fast magnetic reconnection which takes place in…
Dynamically significant magnetic fields are routinely observed in molecular clouds, with mass-to-flux ratio lambda = (2 pi sqrt{G}) (Sigma/B) ~ 1 (here Sigma is the total column density and B is the field strength). It is widely believed…
Aims: We derive the probability density functions (PDFs) of column density for a complete sample of prominent molecular cloud complexes closer than 200 pc. Methods: We derive near-infrared dust extinction maps for 23 molecular cloud…
We present a study of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a weakly ionised, multifluid MHD plasma with parameters matching those of a typical molecular cloud. The instability is capable of transforming well-ordered flows into disordered…
We develop a magnetic ribbon model for molecular cloud filaments. These result from turbulent compression in a molecular cloud in which the background magnetic field sets a preferred direction. We use our model to calculate a synthetic…